Safety of Tube Staff on the London Underground

Caroline Pidgeon: Following recent reports of attacks on Tube staff, including a member of TfL staff being put in a headlock, punched and kicked after challenging a man for urinating, what actions are you taking, in partnership with TfL and the British Transport Police, to ensure the safety of staff working on the London Underground?

The Mayor: It is essential we do everything we can to ensure Transport for London (TfL) staff feel safe and are able to go about their work without fear or intimidation. London’s transport network remains a low-crime environment, but any incident of violence or aggression against frontline staff must be treated with zero tolerance.
TfL has been working closely with Trade Unions, staff groups and policing partners on strengthening its approach to work-related violence and aggression. In November 2019, TfL announced a number of initiatives to tackle the issue, including measures to address the common triggers of workplace violence and aggression, such as antisocial behaviour and fare evasion. This includes:
This is part of a series of measures to strengthen support for staff across the TfL network. It is the first stage of TfL’s Workplace Violence and Aggression Strategy, which is due to be published shortly. Once engagement with the Trade Unions and staff groups has concluded and the strategy has been approved, I have asked TfL to contact your office to arrange a briefing.

PM2.5 Composition (2)

David Kurten: What is the composition of the different elements and compounds in PM2.5s below ground on the tube network?

The Mayor: Historically, Transport for London (TfL) has not measured PM2.5 levels on the Tube network. In January 2019 the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) report recommended that future monitoring includes collecting physiologically relevant fractions (e.g. PM10 and PM2.5), to enable PMs from the Tube to be included in wider toxicity studies. This recommendation has been accepted, and will be implemented in TfL’s next round of monitoring, which is due to be carried out in early 2020.
TfL typically monitors respirable dust samples from the Tube network. The content of these samples are typically 20 – 30 per cent elemental iron. The remaining mass is made up of a combination of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Calcium, Silicon, and organic material.
The following elements are also analysed for:
These elements are found to be below the detectable limit (less than 1 per cent).
The composition of Tube dust is significantly different from that of ambient air. While dust matter in the urban environment is made up of some components known to be harmful to health, this is not the case for Tube dust.
Despite this, TfL is committed to reducing the impact of Tube dust on those using the Underground. TfL spend around £60millon per annum cleaning their trains, stations and tunnels to ensure dust and particles are kept to an absolute minimum. This includes regular cleaning of trains and stations. TfL is also conducting further research into Tube dust and its effects.
Please see my answers to Mayor's Question 2019/21064, 2019/21065, 2020/0190 and 2020/0137.

Notifying protesters of police action

Unmesh Desai: Does the Met police have a protocol, or guidance to be followed, when notifying protesters via social media of Police action to be taken against them? If so, was this followed leading up to the Section 14 order imposed on 14 October 2019?

The Mayor: The Metropolitan Police inform me that they did send out a notification via social media of the s14 conditions issued on 14th October 2019. Please see the twitter account ‘MPS Events’. This was issued as soon as the conditions were agreed and signed. The MPS would not be able to publicise the conditions before this point because there would not yet have been any conditions to publicise.
It is standard practice for the MPS to publicise these conditions on social media. Again, I refer the questioner to the MPS Events page on Twitter which shows that the MPS puts out any information on events in London that the public should have or might need.

Police Rest Days

Peter Whittle: How many rest days are currently owed to Metropolitan Police officers and what action is in hand to bring this number down?

The Mayor: As of end of December 2019 there are 148,566 outstanding rest days.
The MPS experienced unprecedented demand in 2019, especially from the Extinction Rebellion protests, which led to an increase in the number of outstanding days over the last 12 months.
It is important to understand that cancelling and rescheduling rest days is an established mechanism by which police forces manage demand and as such there will always be a ‘working total’ of outstanding days.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has longstanding policies and a Gold Group led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Taylor to manage rest days and help ensure they are taken within a reasonable time frame.
The recent increases in police officer recruits will also help to mitigate pressure on police resources and enable officers to take their rest days.

Arrivals

Andrew Boff: Please state the number of buses which routes connect Outer London and Inner London that failed to arrive on time at their final destination in each year since 2015/16. Please give a breakdown by year and route.

The Mayor: There are 230 routes which connect Inner and Outer London (excluding school routes). 169 of these are high-frequency (5 or more buses per hour), while 61 are low-frequency (fewer than 5 buses per hour).
For high-frequency routes, passengers except a turn-up-and-go service so Transport for London (TfL) measures performance by Excess Wait Time (the difference between scheduled and actual wait times) rather than on-time arrivals. On low frequency routes, TfL measures performance using an on-time percentage, which is based across the whole route. Excess Wait Time and Percentage On-Time are provided annually for the 230 routes below.
Due to changes in frequency some routes used to be measured by EWT. These have been highlighted in the attached table and show a low number, as defined above. All other statistics show the percentage of services that were on-time.